[an error occurred while processing this directive]
BBC News
watch One-Minute World News
Last Updated: Monday, 13 November 2006, 12:18 GMT
Rape claim woman given six months
Katie Davis
Katie Davis will serve her term in a young offender's institute
An 18-year-old woman convicted of making a false claim of rape has been sentenced to six months in a young offenders' institute.

Katie Davis, of St Leonards, East Sussex, was sentenced at Lewes Crown Court on Monday after being convicted of perverting the course of justice.

Her claim that a stranger attacked her in an alleyway led to Frank Chisholm, 24, spending 10 weeks in a Sussex jail.

The judge said her "wicked lies" still had a dramatic effect on his life.

Judge Richard Brown told her: "His family have also suffered considerably.

"You were responsible for him being in prison for several weeks.

"And when you pursued in those wicked lies you put him through the trauma of giving evidence in your trial."

Forensic evidence

Davis, of Blackman Avenue, who was aged 16 at the time of her rape claim, had sex with Mr Chisholm at his house after meeting him in the street as he was walking home from a night out drinking on 6 March 2005.

Jurors heard she invented the false rape claim because she feared she could be pregnant after having unprotected sex with him.

She told police in an interview: "I was the victim in all of this and you have made me out to be the criminal in all of this."

This seems like a nightmare that will never end
Frank Chisholm

House-to-house inquiries were made after police were informed a teenage girl had been raped by a balaclava-clad man in an alleyway.

Former railway labourer Mr Chisholm was charged with rape after DNA evidence linked him to Davis.

But the 24-year-old denied raping her, saying they had consensual sex at his home in Battle Road.

Forensic evidence later emerged which led to the case against him being dropped.

Det Con Shoni Grant told the trial discrepancies and inconsistencies in Davis's accounts led police to cast "serious doubt" on her allegation.

Mr Chisholm was not in court to see Davis sentenced.

But after last month's guilty verdict, he said: "I used to be an outgoing, personable and sociable person.

"Now I can't bear to go out and I'm very wary of girls and have lost my trust.

"This seems like a nightmare that will never end."

See Frank Chisholm's father explain the effect on his family

False rape claim woman faces jail
10 Oct 06 |  Southern Counties
Man's anger at 'false rape claim'
05 Oct 06 |  Southern Counties

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

Has China's housing bubble burst?
How the world's oldest clove tree defied an empire
Why Royal Ballet principal Sergei Polunin quit


Americas Africa Europe Middle East South Asia Asia Pacific